Many beneficial drugs are known or suspected of producing adverse side effects in certain individuals. These side effects may be manifest in the patient taking the drug, in a foetus (i.e. fetus) carried by the patient, or in a recipient (or foetus carried by a recipient) of the bodily fluids of the patient. In some cases, administration of the drug may be acceptable in some patients, but absolutely contraindicated in other patients. For example, drugs known or suspected of causing birth defects if taken by a pregnant woman (i.e. teratogenic drugs); may nonetheless be beneficial for treating certain conditions. However, because of the teratogenic properties of the drug, administration to pregnant women must be avoided. Other drugs are known which may be beneficially employed in the general population, but must be avoided by individuals having a certain preexisting condition, or those concurrently taking certain other medication(s), due to adverse side effects which may develop in those individuals.
One such drug which is known to produce adverse side effects, but which may nevertheless be beneficially employed in certain patients is thalidomide. Thalidomide is a drug which was first synthesized in Germany in 1957. Beginning in 1958, it was marketed in many countries for use as a sedative, although it was never approved for use in the United States. After reports of serious birth defects, thalidomide was withdrawn from all markets by 1962. However, during the years it was used, it was found to be effective in treating erythema nodosum leprosum (ENL), a condition of leprosy, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has made the drug available for this specific use via a program of the Public Health Service. More recently, investigators have found that thalidomide may be effective in treating AIDS wasting and aphthous ulcers occurring in AIDS patients. In addition, treatments for other diseases, such as a number of neoplastic diseases including cancers, rheumatoid arthritis, and macular degeneration, are also believed to be possible. The FDA has recently approved an application by Celgene Corporation, which is the assignee of the present patent application, to market thalidomide for the treatment of ENL. The medical community anticipates that thalidomide will be used for treatment of additional conditions and diseases, including those set forth above. However, due to the severe teratogenic risk of thalidomide, methods are needed to control the distribution of this drug so as to preclude administration to foetuses.
In this regard, U.S. Pat. No. 6,045,501, to Elsayed et al., provides methods for delivering a drug to a patient while preventing the exposure of a foetus or other contraindicated individual to the drug. According to the methods of this patent, prescriptions for the drug are filled only after a computer readable storage medium has been consulted to assure that the prescriber is registered in the medium and qualified to prescribe the drug, that the pharmacy is registered in the medium and qualified to fill the prescription for the drug, and the patient is registered in the medium and approved to receive the drug. Improvements to this method may be useful, however, to minimize and simplify the demands on the pharmacy, thereby improving compliance with the system of distribution, and reducing the risk that the drug will be dispensed to a contraindicated individual.
Methods for monitoring and educating patients to whom a drug is distributed have been developed in connection with Accutane (isotretinoin). Accutane, which is a known teratogen, is a uniquely effective drug for the treatment of severe, recalcitrant, nodular acne. A pregnancy prevention program was developed, and the Slone Epidemiology Unit of Boston University designed and implemented a survey to evaluate these efforts. The survey identified relatively low rates of pregnancy during Accutane treatment, which suggests that such a program can be effective. With more-than about 325,000 women enrolled to date in the Accutane survey, it is also clear that such a large-scale study can be conducted. Enrollment in the Accutane survey is voluntary, however. Accordingly, assessing the representativeness of the women who have been enrolled in the survey has been problematic, and it has been difficult to determine whether the survey results can be generalized to all female Accutane users. Thus, an improved survey is needed which would be representative of all users of a particular drug, such as thalidomide, who obtain the drug through legal distribution channels. There are also no mechanisms provided to assure compliance with the program or to limit distribution of the drug to participants in the survey.
Because drug sharing may frequently occur among AIDS patients, which may result in placing a foetus at risk, a program is needed which can be used to educate men and women about the risk of teratogenic drugs, such as thalidomide. In addition, a system is needed for the controlled distribution of a drug, in which of all users of the drug, including prescribers, pharmacies, and patients, may be accountable for their compliance with methods that may be established to minimize the risk that a contraindicated individual will be exposed to the drug. The present invention is directed to these, as well as other important ends.